India has slowly recovered from the deadly second wave of Covid-19 which broke out earlier this year. It has also restored investor confidence in the world’s sixth-largest economy. The stock market was soaring. It propelled the combined wealth of the members of the 2021 Forbes list of India’s richest to a record of US $775 billion. This was after adding $257 billion, which is a rise of 50% in the past twelve months. In this year, more than 80% of the listees saw their fortunes increase. 61 of them added $1 billion or more. Mukesh Ambani tops the list according to Forbes India. He is India’s richest man since 2008 and holds his position firmly with a net worth of $92.7 billion. He recently outlined plans to make a business out of renewable energy. His Reliance Industries itself will invest $10 billion.
Close to a fifth of the increase in the collective wealth of India’s 100 comes from infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani. He ranks number 2 for the third time in a row. He nearly tripled his fortune from $25.2 billion to $74.8 billion as the shares of his listed companies soared. At number three stands Shiv Nadar with $31 billion. He is the founder of software giant HCL Technologies. He saw a boost of $10 billion in his net worth from the buoyant tech sector. Radhakishan Damani is placed fourth with his net worth nearly doubling from $15.4 billion to $29.4 billion. It was possible because his supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts opened 22 new stores in the fiscal year ending March.
India was able to administer over 870 million Covid-19 vaccine shots to date. The thanks can be given to the Serum Institute of India, founded by vaccine billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla. This person occupies the fifth position with a net worth of $19 billion. He has a private company that makes Covisheild under license from AstraZeneca. This company also has other Covid-19 vaccines under development. Naazneen Karmali is the Asia Wealth Editor and India Editor of Forbes Asia. He said, “This year’s list reflects India’s resilience and can-do spirit even as Covid-19 extracted a heavy toll on both lives and livelihood. Hopes of a V-shaped recovery fueled a stock market rally that propelled the fortunes of India’s wealthiest to new heights. With the minimum net worth to make ranks approaching $2 billion, the top 100 club is getting more exclusive.”
The top 10 richest people in India according to Forbes are:
- Mukesh Ambani with US$92.7 billion
- Gautam Adani with $74.8 billion
- Shiv Nadar with $31 billion
- Radhakishan Damani with $29.4 billion
- Cyrus Poonawalla with $19 billion
- Lakshmi Mittal with $18.8 billion
- Savitri Jindal with $18 billion
- Uday Kotak with $16.5 billion
- Pallonji Mistry with $16.4 billion
- Kumar Birla with $15.8 billion
